Robert Amsterdam: Authorities  that oppose the clergy ultimately face  inevitable defeat

ArmInfo.  The course of events in Armenia shows that the possibility of convening the  National Assembly without the blessing of the Catholicos of All  Armenians is seemingly becoming a reality. International lawyer  Robert Amsterdam writes about this in his article.

According to him, logical as this may be as a continuation of RA  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's campaign against the Armenian  Apostolic Church, there is still hope that common sense will prevail.

"Defending the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I see how  authorities that have opposed the clergy ultimately suffer inevitable  defeat, and the Church emerges victorious. The struggle against the  Church is hopeless. Today, when the Prime Minister of the Republic of  Armenia himself already feels that the campaign he initiated is not  finding resonance and support among the Armenian people, the right  moment has come to stop. It is time to quiet political ambitions,  rather than finally betray traditions and undermine the foundations  of statehood," the lawyer noted.

Recall that the "fresh" campaign against the AAC [Armenian Apostolic  Church] was launched with Pashinyan's statement on May 29 of last  year at a cabinet meeting, when he compared Armenia's churches to  storage closets. He then wrote offensive remarks directed at the  hierarchs of the AAC and raised the issue of celibacy among Armenian  clergy, specifically the Catholicos of All Armenians. Meanwhile, the  prime minister's spouse called the clergymen "the country's main  pedophiles."

This was preceded by a statement from Catholicos of All Armenians  Karekin II at an international conference in Bern, in which he stated  that Azerbaijan continues to destroy Armenian Christian and  cultural-historical monuments in the region and holds representatives  of the Karabakh leadership and other citizens captive.

From that moment on, [Pashinyan] demanded every day for an answer to  the question of whether Karekin II adhered to his vow of celibacy.  Having received no response, just the other day he stated himself  that the Catholicos has a child and must step down from his office.  Accelerating events, Pashinyan called for "effective steps" to depose  Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and announced the creation of  a special coordination group for the "liberation of the Residence of  the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin" and the settlement of  organizational issues for holding a new election of the Catholicos.  The first 10 members of the Coordination Group—who "with all their  heart believe in our living Lord Jesus Christ, have read the Bible  from cover to cover at least once, have observed Great Lent at least  once over the past five years, and pray every day"—will be chosen by  the prime minister himself.